Bentley Bentayga’s Success Could See The Development Of More Derivatives

Breaking the pattern by becoming Bentley’s first-ever SUV, and now the brand’s first diesel offering, the Bentayga is believed to pave the road for different versions.

One of the variants tipped to join the lineup is the Coupe, expected around 2019 with a sloping roofline, Autocar writes, citing the automaker’s CEO, Wolfgang Durheimer.

“I’m confident that it will happen, and our team is working on the case for this car, but it is not yet approved for production. We are the first in the luxury SUV space, and at the moment unopposed, but there are lots of rivals coming to the sector. The question we need to answer is if there is space for all of these body styles.“

But the Bentayga Coupe is not Bentley’s sole possible addition to the family, as the Volkswagen Group-owned brand has its eyes on an extended wheelbase derivative as well, which is considered thanks to the success of the Mulsanne EWB.

“In the Middle East and China, it is almost exclusively what we sell. Those markets have shown what is possible, and it makes business sense; the engineering is not rocket science, but it is expensive because when you change components like the side panels and roof, you add a lot of cost“, Durheimer added.

Additionally, a high-performance version of the Bentley Bentayga is also on the table, coming to rival the likes of the Range Rover Sport SVR with a possible highly-tuned W12 engine sitting under the hood, which should slash something off the 4.1 seconds needed by the W12-powered Bentayga to cover the 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) sprint, before tapping at 301 km/h (187 mph).

“If we have enough who want the car, and they are new to the brand rather than people who will choose this Bentley rather than another one, then we will consider it. The Continental GT3-R was limited to 300 cars, and looked really extreme and performed well, and already it is a collectors’ car, so there is interest“, said Bentley’s head of engineering, Rolf Frech.

Rounding the brand’s SUV family could be a smaller model, sized between the Porsche Macan and Cayenne, according to Wolfgang Durheimer, who said that plans for such a vehicle are currently on hold: “For now, we will go bigger, not smaller. That is the more interesting direction.“